Cutter bar assembly



Uite States atent [72] Inventors Ross H. Goodrich 1412 Liberty St.,Franklin, Pa. 16323; John A. Belkovicz, 20 Woodland SL, Claremont, N.H.03743 [211 App]. No. 775,857 [22] Filed Nov. 14, 1968 [45] Patented Dec.29, 1970 [54] CUTTER BAR ASSEMBLY 10 Claims, 3 Drawing Figs.

[52] U.S. Cl 299/82, 143/32 [51] int. Cl E2lc 25/30 [50] Field ofSearch299/82, 83, 84; 143/32-3210 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS869,659 10/1907 Schubert 143/32 12/1942 Morrow 12/1950 Fulke 8/1960l-loff et al FOREIGN PATENTS 12/1942 Germany 4/1961 Great BritainPrimary Examiner Ernest R. Purser Attorney-E. Wallace Breisch CUTTER BARASSEMBLY Some mining machine cutter bars presently in use form the chainguideways from weldments of spaced body plates having wear platestherebetweemThe wear plates are required to protect the cutter bar fromthe heavy wear caused by the movement of an endless cutting chaincontained within the guideways. With such an arrangement the wear platesare not readily replacable and additionally if worn plates are notreplaced prior to disintegration thereof the continued movement of thecutter chain causes wear damage to the body plates and/or guide plates,thereby necessitating replacing the entire weldment.

In the present invention the cutter bar comprises a single elongatedmain body plate having one piece chain guideways removably secured'tothe sides thereof. With such structure, guideways which are worn beyondan acceptable thickness are easily removed and discarded and newguideways are removably secured to the cutter bar.

These and other objects and advantages of this invention will becomemore readily apparent from the following description and drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a cutter bar assembly embodying theprinciples of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the cutter bar assembly as shown inFIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken on line 3-3 of FIG. 2.

A cutter bar assembly of this invention includes an elongated maincutter bar body or body plate having elongated intermediate guideways l2and end guideways 12' releasably secured to the sides thereof. Guideways12 and 12' are adapted to slidably receive a gibbed portion of awell-known endless cutter chain 14 therewithin, which cutter chain 14,continuously circulates around the outer periphery of the cutter barassembly. Guideways 12 and 12"are identical in configuration to eachother with the exception that guideways 12 each have an end portion 48thereof which provideswell known entrance and exit openings for theendless cutter chain 14 as described hereinafter.

The cutter bar assembly has the rearward end thereof adapted to bepivotably attached in any suitable manner to a cutting machine notshown) and as shown, means for such attaching means include a pivotplate 16 and rearwardly extending coupling prongs 17. A forward chainreturn head 18 of any well known construction is securely fastened toand extends forwardly from the forward ends of the cutter bar assembly.Inasmuch as the unique features of this invention reside in thestructure of the plate 10 and guideways 12 and 12 and as the otherportions of the cutter bar assembly are well known, further descriptionof means 16 and 17 and return head 18 is not believed to be necessary tothe understanding of this invention.

As shown, body plate 10 is of a generally rectangular cross sectionhaving opposed notched side surfaces 20 such that open-ended grooves 22extend axially throughout the length of plate 10 on each side thereof.Grooves 22 are of a suitable cross section to provide locating means forguideways l2 and I2 and restrict the lateral movement thereof withrespect to plate 10 and, as shown are rectangular in cross section.

As shown in FIG. 3, the guideways 12 and 12 have a lateral height equalto the lateral height of plate 10 and a centrally located axiallyelongated locating projection portion 26 extending continuously alongthe inner side surface 24 thereof. Portion 26 is dimensioned to beclosely and freely received within groove 22 of plate 10 such that whenguideways l2 and 12' are mated with plate 10, surfaces 20 arerespectively in contact with surfaces 24. Projecting inwardly from anouter side surface 30 of guideways 12 and and 12' a continuous centrallylocated axially elongated cutter chain guide slot 32 of a generally Tcross section slidably receives the gibbed portion of cutter chain Mtherein. Slot 32 has a stern portion 34 thereof open ended at surface 30and a cross bar portion 36 thereof located outwardly adjacent the innerside surface 24 ofguideways l2 and 12'.

Guideways 12 and 12' are releasably secured to body plate 10 by aplurality of suitably removable fastening means, shown as a plurality ofsocket head capscrew 38, which are inserted through centrally locatedinwardly directed through bores 40 in guideways 12 and 12', where screws38 threadably engage a threaded inner periphery of a coaxial blind bore46 of body plate 10. Thus as screws 38 are threaded into bore 46 wellknown compressive forces are created which firmly secure l2 and 12 tobody plate 10. An enlarged counter bore portion 42 of bore 40 isprovided to seat the head portion 44 of screw 38 therein inwardlyadjacent slot 32 thereby preventing interference between screws 38 andthe gibbed portion of cutter chain 14 as chain 14 circulates around thecutter bar assembly.

Thus with such an arrangement as hereinbefore described, guideways 12and 12' serve the dual function of positioning and retaining cutterchain 14 therewith and additionally providing wear surfaces to protectother portions of assembly 10 from well-known forces transferred theretoby the continually moving cutter chain 14. Such forces and therespective wear surfaces thereof include: chain 14 forward and backthrusts which are initially absorbed by the outward and inward surfacesof cross bar portion 36, respectively; and chain 14 side thrusts whichare initially absorbed by the sides of slot 32. When the operation ofchain 14 causes a reduction in the cross-sectional area of guideways 12or 12' below a predetermined minimum area thereof, for example 50percent, chain 14 is removed therefrom; screws 38 are removed from bodyplate 10; the worn guideway 12 or 12' is removed and discarded; a newguideway 12 or 12' is positioned; screws 38 are threaded into bore 46;and chain 141 is replaced.

Portion 48 of guideways l2 differ from the guideway description setforth hereinabove in that the cutter chain guide-slot 32 is flaredoutwardly in any suitable manner to provide well known entrance and exitopenings for the endless cutter chain 14.

Although a preferred embodiment of this invention has been described andillustrated, modifications are contemplated such as: groove 22 andcooperating projection portion 26 can be of any suitable cross section;guideways l2 and 12' can be releasably secured to body plate 10 by othermeans than that illustrated, for example a through bolt extendingtransversely through body plate 10 or rivet means; and the guide slot32, groove 22 and projection portion 26 need not necessarily be locatedcentrally of the lateral height of the cutter bar assembly.

The description herein does not limit the structure of the invention andthe invention is defined by the scope of the claims set forthhereinafter.

We claim: 7

1. A cutter bar assembly having an endless cutting chain cir culatingthereabout and which is adapted for use with a cutting machinecomprising: an elongated cutter bar body adapted to be pivotablyconnected to a cutting machine; elongated one piece cutting chainguideways of identical cross section removably secured to at least amajor extent of the longitudinally extending sides of said body; saidguideways having a configuration to captively slidably receive aguidable portion of an endless cutting chain therein with the innermostsurface of said guidable portion being spaced outwardly from saidlongitudinally extending sides; said guideways having locating portionsthereof engageable with interliitting' portions of said longitudinallyextending sides, with said locating and interfitting portions providinglocating means for said guideways with respect to said body; and saidguideways being removably secured to said body by a plurality ofremovable fastening means which extend transversely through saidguideways with respect to said sides and with the outermost extent ofsaid fastening means being at least inwardly adjacent said innermostsurface.

2. A cutter bar assembly as specified in claim 1 wherein the lateralsurfaces of said body are coplanar with respective surfaces of saidguideways.

3. A cutter bar assembly as specified in claim 1 wherein said outermostextent of said fastening means is spaced inwardly from said innermostsurface.

4. A cutter bar assembly as specified in claim ll wherein said fasteningmeans are located centrally on the lateral height of 5 said body andsaid guideways, respectively.

5. A cutter bar assembly as specified in claim 1 wherein saidconfiguration which carries said guidable portion of said chain is acontinuous slot in said guideways.

6. A cutter bar assembly as specified in claim 5 wherein said fasteningmeans are accessible through said slot.

7. A cutter bar assembly as specified in claim 1 additionallycomprising: other one piece chain guideways having identical variablecross section and being removably secured to an ex tent of thelongitudinally extending sides of said body other than said major extentthereof; said other guideways having a configuration to captivelyslidably receive a guidable portion of an endless cutting chain thereinwith the innermost surface of said guidable portion being spacedoutwardly from said longitudinally extending sides; said other guidewayshaving locating portions thereof engageable with interfitting portionsof said longitudinally extending sides, with said locating andinterfitting portions providing locating means for said other guidewayswith respect to said body; and said other guideways being removablysecured to said body by a plurality of said fastening means which extendtransversely through said other guideways with respect to said sides andwith the outermost extent of said fastening means being at leastinwardly adjacent said innermost surface of said other guideways.

8. A cutter bar assembly as specified in claim l wherein saidinterfitting and locating portions are notch and projection portions, onsaid body and said guideways respectively.

9. A cutter bar assembly as specified in claim 8 wherein saidinterfitting and locating portions extend continuously throughout thelongitudinal lengths of said body and said guideways, respectively.

10. A cutter bar assembly as specified in claim 9 wherein saidinterfitting and locating portion are located centrally of the lateralheight of said body and said guideways respectively.

